Post #16: From A Land Down Under

Welcome to the sixteenth post ofthe Great Writing Challenge of 2012.Five days a week for six months, I will be given a topic to write about. The stipulation: it must be 250 words (or more), and positive in tone.If you would like to suggest topics for me to write about, please email me at TheRebeccaProject [at] gmail [dot] com.

Post #16: From A Land Down Under

I am an Australian living abroad. That informs so much about how I see the world. I get to talk about Australia a lot with the people I meet. I love being asked. Gravitating to fellow antipodeans in the area stems the homesickness with a good ol’ yarn and an exchange of imported groceries from someone’s trip home. There’s some things you just can’t get anywhere else but home. I’ve yet to find a place to pick up a ‘Dog’s Eye’ with ‘Dead Horse’, or some hot chips with chicken salt.

Today is Australia Day. It’s “unAustralian” not to celebrate Australia Day. It’s a day when you attend barbies. You eat until you’re full as a goog. You drink till you’re off your face. You watch the cricket. You visit the beach. You listen to Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown. You get so burnt that you peel.

During this day of obligatory nationalistic fervour, I felt obliged to acknowledge the efforts of my fellow country men and women.

I hail from a nation responsible for attaching corks to hats to keep flies at bay. A place that makes sponge cake, dips it in chocolate, inserts some cream and rolls it around in dessicated coconut (lamingtons). We invented the wine cask and the esky.

I am an Australian living abroad, and that informs so much about how I see the world. I find that I get to talk about Australia a lot with the people I meet, and I love being asked. Gravitating to fellow antipodeans in the area stems the homesickness with a good ol’ yarn and an exchange of imported groceries from someone’s trip home. Haven’t yet found a place to pick up a ‘Dog’s Eye’ with ‘Dead Horse’, or some hot chips with chicken salt: there’s some things you just can’t get anywhere else but home.

So technically, today is still Australia Day. A day when you attend barbies, eat until you’re full as a goog, drink till you’re off your face. You watch the cricket, visit the beach/water, listen to Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown and get so burnt that you peel. It’s “unAustralian” not to celebrate Australia Day.

So during this day of obligatory nationalistic fervour, I felt obliged to acknowledge the efforts of my fellow country men and women.

G’Day! I’m Rebecca.

G'day! I'm Rebecca, an intrepid Aussie who toddled off one day to travel the world. Now I'm lucky to call both San Francisco and Sydney home. So kick up your feet, settle in and enjoy the bits and pieces of my life in progress.